History Literature / Seraphina

* FantasyPantheon: The main religion of the Southlands, Allsaints, which consists of large number of Saints presiding over their distinctive areas, traits and attributes. Children will be assigned a particular patron Saint in their infancy. The Saints have official biographies, but these tend to contradict folk tales and myths. Some of the Saints do seem to have historic roots, such as St. Ogdo who supposedly invented the martial art called Dracomachia.

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* FantasyPantheon: The main religion of the Southlands, Allsaints, which consists of large number of Saints presiding over their distinctive areas, traits and attributes. Children will be assigned a particular patron Saint in their infancy. The Saints have official biographies, but these tend to contradict folk tales and myths. Some of the Saints do seem to have historic roots, such as St. Ogdo who supposedly invented the martial art called Dracomachia. In ''Shadow Scale'', its eventually revealed that [[spoiler: all the Saints were ityasaari.]]

* TheHeretic: Oddly, St. Yirtrudis, whose motto is 'No heaven but this', despite presumably having been worshipped along with the other Saints at one point. All of her images in psalters, chapels and the like are destroyed.

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* TheHeretic: Oddly, St. Yirtrudis, whose motto is 'No heaven but this', despite presumably having been worshipped along with the other Saints at one point. All of her images in psalters, chapels and the like are destroyed. We eventually learn the full reason why in ''Shadow Scale'': [[spoiler: she wrote a treatise revealing the secret that she and her fellow Saints were actually ityasaari and that their "spiritual" visions actually stemmed from their draconian PsychicPowers.]]

** ''Shadow Scale'': [[spoiler: The war is over, Jannoula is defeated, peace is restored, and Seraphina has befriended many other [[HalfHumanHybrid ityasaari]] like herself and gained a better sense than ever before of her own place in the world. But in the process lives have been lost, certain friends and loved ones are now parted indefinitely, Seraphina can no longer hope for a conventional HappilyEverAfter with Kiggs as he and Glisselda go through with their ArrangedMarriage, and worst of all, Orma's memories have been excised. Still, it's implied that Seraphina, Kiggs and Glisselda will create their own, [[OneTrueThreesome ''un''conventional]] HappilyEverAfter, and Seraphina is rebuilding her relationship with Orma with tentative hope that his memories can be restored.]]

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** ''Shadow Scale'': [[spoiler: The war is over, Jannoula is defeated, peace is restored, and Seraphina has befriended many other [[HalfHumanHybrid ityasaari]] like herself and gained a better sense than ever before of her own place in the world. But in the process lives have been lost, certain friends and loved ones are now parted indefinitely, Seraphina can no longer hope for a conventional HappilyEverAfter with Kiggs as he and Glisselda go through with their ArrangedMarriage, and worst of all, Orma's memories have been excised. Still, it's implied that Seraphina, Kiggs and Glisselda will create their own, [[OneTrueThreesome ''un''conventional]] unconventional]] HappilyEverAfter, and Seraphina is rebuilding her relationship with Orma with tentative hope that his memories can be restored.]]

** ''ShadowScale'': [[spoiler: The war is over, Jannoula is defeated, peace is restored, and Seraphina has befriended many other [[HalfHumanHybrid ityasaari]] like herself and gained a better sense than ever before of her own place in the world. But in the process lives have been lost, certain friends and loved ones are now parted indefinitely, Seraphina can no longer hope for a conventional HappilyEverAfter with Kiggs as he and Glisselda go through with their ArrangedMarriage, and worst of all, Orma's memories have been excised. Still, it's implied that Seraphina, Kiggs and Glisselda will create their own, [[OneTrueThreesome ''un''conventional]] HappilyEverAfter, and Seraphina is rebuilding her relationship with Orma with tentative hope that his memories can be restored.]]

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** ''ShadowScale'': ''Shadow Scale'': [[spoiler: The war is over, Jannoula is defeated, peace is restored, and Seraphina has befriended many other [[HalfHumanHybrid ityasaari]] like herself and gained a better sense than ever before of her own place in the world. But in the process lives have been lost, certain friends and loved ones are now parted indefinitely, Seraphina can no longer hope for a conventional HappilyEverAfter with Kiggs as he and Glisselda go through with their ArrangedMarriage, and worst of all, Orma's memories have been excised. Still, it's implied that Seraphina, Kiggs and Glisselda will create their own, [[OneTrueThreesome ''un''conventional]] HappilyEverAfter, and Seraphina is rebuilding her relationship with Orma with tentative hope that his memories can be restored.]]

** Orma's family is the best example. His sister, Linn, illegally married a human and brought shame and suspicion onto the entire family: their father Imlann went rogue after hoard was confiscated, their mother killed herself from the shame, and Orma is now under constant scrutiny from the Censors for overly emotional behaviour towards the only thing he has left of his sister, his niece Seraphina.

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** Orma's family is the best example. His sister, Linn, illegally married a human and brought shame and suspicion onto the entire family: their father Imlann went rogue after his hoard was confiscated, their mother killed herself from the shame, and Orma is now under constant scrutiny from the Censors for overly emotional behaviour towards the only thing he has left of his sister, his niece Seraphina.

Added DiffLines:

* BittersweetEnding: Both books have this.**''Seraphina'': [[spoiler: The dragons are plunged into civil war that threatens the safety of all of Goredd, Queen Lavonda is incapacitated, Princess Dionne is dead, Orma is forced into exile, and Seraphina and Kiggs reluctantly agree to put their budding romance on hold. But Imlann is defeated, Orma is at least alive and has his memories intact, and Seraphina has found acceptance both from others and herself, has new friends and valuable work to do, still has hope that someday she and Kiggs will be together, and finally has a sense of belonging.]]**''ShadowScale'': [[spoiler: The war is over, Jannoula is defeated, peace is restored, and Seraphina has befriended many other [[HalfHumanHybrid ityasaari]] like herself and gained a better sense than ever before of her own place in the world. But in the process lives have been lost, certain friends and loved ones are now parted indefinitely, Seraphina can no longer hope for a conventional HappilyEverAfter with Kiggs as he and Glisselda go through with their ArrangedMarriage, and worst of all, Orma's memories have been excised. Still, it's implied that Seraphina, Kiggs and Glisselda will create their own, [[OneTrueThreesome ''un''conventional]] HappilyEverAfter, and Seraphina is rebuilding her relationship with Orma with tentative hope that his memories can be restored.]]

* SlowTransformation: Dragonís muscles are soft, and their wings incapable of flight for the first few minutes after transformation.* StarCrossedLovers: Seraphina and Lucian, due to him being engaged to his cousin Glisselda [[spoiler: Who is later revealed to ALSO be in love with Seraphina]]and their loyalty to her. That [[InterspeciesRomance Seraphina herself isn't completly human]], and that [[InterClassRomance he is a prince]] doesn't help, either.

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* SlowTransformation: Dragonís Dragon muscles are soft, and their wings incapable of flight flight, for the first few minutes after transformation.* StarCrossedLovers: Seraphina and Lucian, due to him being engaged to his cousin Glisselda [[spoiler: Who is later revealed to ALSO be in love with Seraphina]]and Seraphina]] and their loyalty to her. That [[InterspeciesRomance Seraphina herself isn't completly completely human]], and that [[InterClassRomance he is a prince]] doesn't help, either.

* DragonAncestry: The Ityasaari are a race of half human half dragon hybrids. They usually have silver scales on some part of their body, and have varying PsychicPowers.* DragonHoard: Dragons hoarded treasure until the treaty and Ardmagar Comonotís reforms. Interestingly, the new generation of dragons still hoard in a way, collecting books and sitting on them.

** The [[RoyallyScrewedUp royal family]] aren't such a well-adjusted bunch either. The youngest of Lavonda's children, Princess Laurel, eloped with a Samsamese admiral and had a bastard, Prince Lucian, before dying in a shipwreck. Princess Dionne is incredibly bigoted towards dragons, which is a terrifying trait to have in someone who would soon enough have to help uphold the Treaty. [[spoiler: And while Glisselda's father doesn't seem to be in the picture, Dionne was still seemingly willing to have an illegal affair with Comonot.]] Prince Lucian lost both his parents at age five in an accident he narrowly avoided being in, was brought to a foreign country where he couldn't speak the language, had to live with relatives he had never met and deal with the scorn associated with being a bastard: no wonder he was a problem child.

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** The [[RoyallyScrewedUp royal family]] aren't such a well-adjusted bunch either. The youngest of Lavonda's children, Princess Laurel, eloped with a Samsamese admiral and had a bastard, Prince Lucian, before dying in a shipwreck. Princess Dionne is incredibly bigoted towards dragons, which is a terrifying trait to have in someone who would soon enough have to help uphold the Treaty. [[spoiler: And while Glisselda's father doesn't seem to be in the picture, Dionne was still seemingly willing to have an illegal affair with Comonot.]] Prince Lucian lost both his parents at age five in an accident he narrowly avoided being in, was brought to a foreign country where he couldn't speak the language, and had to live with relatives he had never met and deal with the scorn associated with being a bastard: no wonder he was a problem child.

** Lars' family fits this trope well. His mother had an extramaritial affair with a dragon in human form. When Lars grew up and showed the first signs of being a half-dragon, his father killed his wife in a fit of anger - both for adultery and giving birth to a hybrid. Enraged that his father murdered his mother, Lars' brother, Josef, killed his father. Josef, however, harbours no warm feelings for his half-brother, whom he views as a monstrosity.

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** Lars' family fits this trope well. His mother had an extramaritial affair with a dragon in human form. When Lars grew up and showed the first signs of being a half-dragon, his father mother was killed his wife in a fit of anger by her enraged husband - both for adultery and giving birth to a hybrid. Enraged that his father murdered his mother, Lars' brother, Josef, killed his father. Josef, however, harbours no warm feelings for his half-brother, whom he views as a monstrosity.

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: They can take human form, [[GeneticMemory inherit their ancestors' memories]] and are [[EmotionalEmotionlessPerson emotionless]] as well as highly intellectual.

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* OurDragonsAreDifferent: They can take human form, [[GeneticMemory inherit their ancestors' memories]] and are [[EmotionalEmotionlessPerson emotionless]] as well as highly intellectual. And when confronted with humans and their social interactions, they often behave as if they had [[UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome Asperger's]].

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